The present invention relates to a hand-protection accessory. More particularly, although not exclusively, the invention relates to an accessory for a sports glove, a sports glove incorporating an accessory, or a standalone accessory, for use in extreme sporting activities such as competitive skateboarding, to protect a participant""s hands.
Competition skateboarding and rollerblading are regarded by many as extreme sporting activities, having associated dangers. Participants wear knee pads, elbow pads, shoulder pads, helmets and other protective gear. The competitors also wear hand-protective gloves to protect their hands in the event of an accident. Hand injuries can be particularly bad in a fall where the participant""s palm makes sliding contact with the ground surface.
Protective gloves however, can present a burden to the participant, when handshaking, holding a drink bottle, signing an autograph, reaching into a pocket, and particularly at the commencement of a race. Moreover, to attain a good start, participants grasp the starting gate or post and pull themselves forward. Gloves having good protective and sliding capabilities in the event of an accident display exactly those properties which are undesirable in attaining good grip on the starting gate or post at race commencement.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantage and/or more generally to provide improved hand-protection accessory.
There is disclosed herein a hand-protection accessory comprising:
a flexible hand attachment for connection about a wearer""s hand,
a pad extending from the hand attachment and including a thumb loop through which the wearer""s thumb can extend so as to maintain the pad adjacent the palm of said hand unless deliberately released from the thumb.
Preferably the hand attachment includes a pair of strap segments extending about the hand.
Preferably each strap segment extends from a respective attachment area, which attachment area is attached to one another in the back of said hand.
Preferably a pad strap segment extends between the pad and the hand attachment.
Preferably the pad strap segment extends from one of the attachment areas in between said strap segments.
Preferably a pad foundation portion extends between the thumb loop and the pad strap.
Preferably the pad is a replaceable piece attached to the pad foundation portion.
Preferably the pad is a slide pad having a low dynamic coefficient of friction.
Alternatively, the pad can be a grip pad having a high static coefficient of friction.
Such an accessory might be worn upon a bare hand or outside of a glove.
As an alternative, the flexible hand attachment might be formed integrally with a glove.
Although an accessory as disclosed herein would have a primary application in the sporting activities as discussed earlier, there is also application in the workshop for example where it would be very useful as a tool holder, or in the kitchen or other places. Often, in the workshop, extra grip is required on say the handle of a screwdriver, a standing block or scrubbing brush/burnishers etc. To this end, instead of having a xe2x80x9cslide padxe2x80x9d having a low dynamic coefficient of friction, this feature could be replaced with a xe2x80x9cgrip padxe2x80x9d having a high static coefficient of friction for achieving good grip.